Weather forecast

• Environment Canada's Marine Weather for the Northern Strait of Georgia (if North and South forecasts are currently the same, you will have to select link for Strait of Georgia from the available choices)
• Current Conditions Sentry Shoal Click "Past 24 hours" button to see weather trend
• Earth Nullschool Animmated Weather/Currents/Gases/etc. (click earth button to activate menu)
• Environment Canada's local forecast - Campbell River
• NOAA North Pacific Weather Maps
• Animated winds (or currents or) around the world (Windy.com)
• Also check out the downloadable Marine Weather books at the bottom of this page.

Currents and Tides

• Seymour Narrows Currents (This site corrects for Daylight Savings time. See on-site disclaimer)
• Campbell River Tides (This site corrects for Daylight Savings time. See on-site disclaimer)
• Official Tide and current tables (Select either Tide or Current and current year, then the area and finally the station. All values are Standard Time. See on-site disclaimer)
• Most charting programs come with built in tide and current software. However there are many stand alone applications for phones and computers. One problem with some applications is that they do not always keep up to changes to daylight saving dates (yes I know it has been a number of years, but there is some old code out there, also some older computers may not switch over correctly). Please check your selected software against official tide and current data - like above - for a number of dates, and when the change over occurs between standard and daylight savings time and back.
• Jtides is free and seems to work well (make sure you test it yourself). It is available for Windows and Linux.
• The author of Jtides has also done a port to Android, called TidePredictor (version 2.0 as of Feb 2018) also free with no ads.
• I'm not an Apple person, so am looking for recommendations.

Important Navigation Updates

• Notices to Shipping. Now Navwarnings.
• Notices to Mariners, Chart Patches and List of Lights
• Catalogue of Charts Shows area covered by each chart. The Pacific PDF seems to work the best. First pages cover the North Coast.
• How to Correct your chart

Regulatory information

• Safe Boating Guide
• Information related to Boating Course
  • Canadian Aids to Navigation System
  • Canadian Aids to Navigation System Map (Introduction in chartlet form)
  • Chart 1 (Canadian Hydrographics publication that details symbols found on charts)
  • List of Lights, Buoys and Fog Signals
  • Collision Regulations
• Information related to ROC Course
  • Ships and Radio Distress by VEOMWD
  • Phonetic Alphabet History by VEOMWD
  • Anatomy of an MMSI number by VEOMWD
  • VHF Channels and procedures around Campbell River (suitable for two sided print, laminating and keeping close to your radio.)
  • Radio Aids to Marine Navigation Radio Calling Procedures, Coast Guard Radio Station transmitter locations, working and weather frequencies, Notship and Weather broadcast schedules, VTS channels and calling in points.
  • Industry Canada MMSI info and application
  • Specimen Questions and Online Access instructions (Password required).
• Transport Canada Marine Transportation (Regulations - Equipment Regulations, etc.; Ship Safety bulletins, etc.)
• Don't forget your fishing licence
• Report a Marine Mamal incident phone 1-800-465-4336

Boating Organizations

• Canadian Power Squadron - National
• Canadian Power Squadron - Vancouver Island North
• Canadian Power Squadron - Vancouver Island South
• Campbell River Yacht Club

Other Useful Links

• Cold water shock (Researchers are recognizing that Hypothermia is not the big killer when you first enter the water)
• Bowditch - The American Practical Mariner (a very in-depth text on Navigation released by the US government)
• Online Nautical dictionary (intro states it is for sailing, but covers pretty much everything.) Also includes older sailing terminology
• Animated Knots by Grog (excellent, free online reference)
• Geoff's Bowline method
• Vessel tracking (real time, using AIS, overlaid on a map) from MarineTraffic.com
• Online Variation Calculator (NOAA) (Thanks to Wayne Shields for bringing this to my attention.) The page refers to the term Declination rather than Variation. This is the term used by land navigators. Marine navigators use Declination to refer to the angle that planets or stars are North or South of the equator. We refer to the Sun's declination changing over the year as it appears to move with the seasons. The declination of a body is critical when using the stars and planets to navigate while out of sight of land. Variation is the term used by mariners to measure the local angle between Magnetic and True North.
• History of CCGC Point Race, which served Campbell River from 1982 to 2011
• Pictures and Videos of Scuba Diving around Campbell River. Thanks Roger.
• Booklets from the Government of Canada Publications Archive (free for non-commercial use. Search for other publications via this link)
• National Marine Weather Guide. A good overview of Weather, and how it affects Canada
• National Marine Weather Guide - British Columbia Regional Guide. Includes break down of weather by area, including section on Desolation Sound.
• Oceanography of the British Columbia Coast
• Staying Alive - Survival in Cold Water
• Sea kayaking safety guide
• Passport of boating safety for anglers and hunters